Council Votes to Remove Columbus Statue

The New Britain City Council has approved a resolution to move a statue of Christopher Columbus from a prominent city park.

The resolution was approved by the Council at its meeting on December 9, 2020, by a 10 to 4 vote.

Introduced by two Democratic Council members, Ald. Chris Anderson (D-AL) and Ald. Colin Osborn (D-2), the resolution calls for the removal of the statue of Columbus from its present location on city parkland at the corner of Main and North streets and replacing it with another symbol honoring Italian Americans in New Britain.

At its December 2, 2020 meeting, the Council’s Committee on Administration, Finance and Law voted to return the resolution back to the full Council after approving an amendment that did not change the effect of the resolution.

The issue of moving the statue has been the subject of intense debate for months, with community activists advocating for this removal. Opposition to moving the statue has been expressed, but has drawn strongly worded rebukes from community leaders about racist comments made against removing the statue.

In the December 2nd committee meeting, Ald. Osborn again highlighted that bigotry, expressing the irony that many of the hateful comments arguing for keeping Columbus statue actually show why it should be removed.

Saying the opposition to removal of the statue is about a sense of entitlement over ownership and resources, Ald. Osborn said, “Real, true diversity is incorporated into the fabric of the community. It’s incorporated into policy. It’s incorporated in governmental affairs.”

“You can’t say, ‘keep the Christopher Columbus monument up, it’s about diversity, but to hell with the rest of you all who don’t like it,'” Ald. Osborn said. “If you want better, you’re going to seek the truth,” he added. “The entire city of New Britain is not celebrating this monument.”

At the December 2nd committee meeting, Ald. Sharon Beloin-Saavedra (R-AL) spoke in favor of the resolution. “Taking the statue down doesn’t erase history,” she said. “What it says is we, as a community are saying we are not celebrating what this individual perpetrated during his voyages.” She added that there are Italian Americans who are more worthy of honor.

In the majority Republican Council, Republican Beloin-Saavedra had been seen as a key swing vote whose vote for it, with the Council Democrats, would tip the balance in favor of approving of the resolution. In the Council meeting on December 9th, however, several other Republicans also voted in support of the measure.

With nationwide protests against racism and inequality including a focus on bringing down symbols of racism and colonialism, renewed attention to accounts from a priest, Bartolome de las Casas, and others, telling about enslavement, murder, rape and other brutality upon native peoples under Columbus’ conquests have led to successful calls for statues of him being removed in some cities.

The New Britain Racial Justice Coalition has been advocating for the city to remove the statue since July. The group held a protest against the statue in July and has been pressing for its removal since.

New Britain NAACP President Ronald P. Davis commented in July that,

Although Christopher Columbus is remembered as a ground-breaking explorer, we must remember his actions led to the transatlantic slave trade and the mass killing and exploitation of indigenous people. He is the cornerstone of ‘Institutional Racism’ in America.

“As a community, we cannot continue to praise a man who stole land and continually chose to dehumanize native people,” Davis said in his July comments, “Why should we have a statue, or a street dedicated to anyone who stands as a symbol for the violence?”

The resolution now goes to the desk of Republican Mayor Erin Stewart for her signature or veto.